No one takes you serious - Bilingual Associate Producer Voltage Employee Review

1.0
Mar 12, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People: Everyone is great. I love the people. They have good humor and are really laid back. Perks: Snack, water, tea/coffee, bi-weekly Pizza lunch, transportation fee is paid, free office supply Work: There are passionate people who are still willing to make this company better. The local leaders are hard-workers whose trying very hard to become the filter between the Japanese HQ and SF office. Thanks to them I felt safe to speak up. Gives us freedom regarding localization of the games which is fun.

Cons

CEO and COO (husband and wife) likes to micro-manage everything. If they do not like it they want it fixed even if it will delay the schedule. The HR is there but not there. HR only has experience in Japan where the custom is totally different. HR also barely understands English. If you send out a question there's a high chance HR will share it with the other HR for translation. The upper management (the Senior Producers) also can not speak English which causes confusion and makes it very difficult to communicate. Checking gmail, hotmail, any kind of personal email is prohibited.. They set up HIGH security, and controls your computer...

Explore other reviews about Voltage

5.0
Nov 2, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Good team! Lots of fun, hard-working, diverse, skillful nerdy folk. -Lots of learning opportunities. It's a great place to learn about storytelling, production, art, and general game/app development. You get out what you put in! -You know exactly how your work is supporting your team and impacting the audience. -Great benefits. -Fun company activities: bowling, picnics, small parties, games, etc. -Lots of company-level transparency. The leadership team is very open during meetings about the company's progress. -Trust and flexibility. Management will treat you like an adult as long as you take care of your work. Good communication skills go a really long way in addressing snags or proposing new ideas.

Cons

-Crunch time! Every game company has it, and at least Voltage is on the low end. There are ongoing efforts to reduce it but that's not easy to do. -Fast-paced content delivery. You have to hit the ground running and keep producing consistently. But, the teams are supportive since everyone's in the same boat. -Voltage is a small company. If you have decent interpersonal skills, then that's not a problem. Everyone's great, but you have to tune up your soft business skills sometimes. As a 2019 hire, I can't comment on anything that happened in prior years. But, I can say that a lot of the very negative GD reviews don't reflect the current state of things. No company is perfect and Voltage has its share of kinks and issues, but by in large it's a great place to work.

1.0
Mar 27, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Transportation compensation. People are nice, on an individual basis.

Cons

The people in this office are completely uncooperative. Most of them have never had a real job or worked in the game industry, therefore, all the horn tooting about so-called "expertise" are hyperbolic at best. The toxic atmosphere is intensified because those with the bad attitudes tend to influence one another and exponentially exacerbate the discontent felt throughout the office. Upper management, AKA, CEO and COO really do have micro-management issues. They really don't have any idea why the company is doing so poorly because they do not take time to investigate the foundation of the problem (lack of research, lack of quality hires, lack of leadership, etc etc.) However, they are not the only problem. Hiring process needs to be re-evaluated because they keep hiring problematic workers. Their unwillingness to fire people who contribute to the unhealthy environment only highlights the difference in culture between Japan and America. Jobs need to be more clearly defined. I understand being a start up that people are expected to do a little bit of everything, but the imbalance of work between people in the company is ridiculous.

4
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